Julius Operarius
Julius Ivo Operarius was a Marian General, Secretary of Defense, and later Chancellor in Imperium Offtopicum IV. Elected on the Federalist ticket near the game's end, Operarius was responsible for GUN's entry into the Third World War, and between IOT IV and The Aftermath turned the Federation into a techno-dictatorship, with the ultimate goal of enslaving all human life. Operarius was murdered by Sombra de Mar in the rebel uprising that established the Marian Republic prior to the official start of The Aftermath. Background Operarius served as a career officer for nineteen years, enlisting at age 22 and rapidly rising to General by age 34. A close advisor to Lucius Infernius, at age 38 he became Supreme Commander of Marian forces in the Middle East, where he received commendation for counterinsurgency tactics that his supporters claimed were instrumental in quickly ending the war two years later. He served as a general for one more year before being appointed Secretary of Defense, age 41. Operarius oversaw both the quantitative and qualitative expansion of the Marian armed forces. He contested the cruise missile program as fiscally irrational, advocating greater use of unmanned aerial vehicles as a reusable alternative that would reduce costs for pilot training as well as the number of soldiers on the front lines. Operarius stated that his dream was to bring the Federation's robotics technology up to par with countries such as Germany and Japan, and to this end consistently advocated a generous military budget. Chancellor The Federalist leadership under Marcos de Sombra lauded Operarius as a hero for his efforts to guarantee the safety of society's finest, and for striving to reduce the risk of front-line casualty. They praised Operarius' leadership during the Arab War, which they claimed would have dragged on far longer without his innovative tactics. Operarius' promotion by the Federalists was nonetheless seen as propaganda. Operarius became Chancellor at age 49, under the Federalist ticket. His first project was the "Lawbot" Program, which would apply UAV technology to ground-based machines, allowing police officers to stay out of harm's way while still fulfilling their duties. Lawbots replaced or supplemented police in most parts of the Federation. The move was generally hailed as progressive, and Lawbots possessed no weapons besides tasers. Operarius was known to be very aggressive both personally and politically, and made no secret of his hatred of Communism. He would later displace Sombra with intrigue to become Federalist leader, securing dictatorial control of the party. Operarius worked with Progressive President Emmanuel de Zorrito, though they often were at odds. Operarius' newest project, introduced on the eve of World War III, was the Praetorian, a powerful, well-armed robot, designed both as front-line troops and bodyguards for state officials. Operarius lost his left arm in an undisclosed accident when one ripped it off. Dictator The Marians' lacklustre performance in the war led Operarius to attack de Zorrito as incompetent, and through the usual Byzantine scheming he wrested control of the Presidency, exiling de Zorrito to an unknown location. Operarius quickly instituted a wartime economy, with strict rationing, government secrecy, and suspension of various rights and freedoms in the name of "state security". Predictably, when the war finally ended with both the Federation and its enemies in ruins, Operarius refused to relinquish his control. Unknown to anyone at the time, Lawbots and Praetorians were built with an override command that allowed Operarius to take control of the entire robotics network shortly after war's end, bolstered by stockpiles mass-produced for the front lines. The network was tied to a single fail-safe that would default connected robots to a set of pre-planned directives should it be infiltrated. With both the police and military under his direct control, Operarius was able to arrest and/or execute his opposition with impunity, ruling unopposed for nearly two decades. Downfall and death While Operarius harbored vehemently racist attitudes toward the Neo Incans and their descendants, he nonetheless avoided outright discriminatory policies, opting instead to conduct covert purges by arresting leader figures and framing them for offenses against the state. Marcos de Sombra, who had quickly turned on Operarius after losing the party leadership and remained a critic of the ensuing regime, was one of the first casualties. The inevitable resistance that emerged brought together both human and nonhuman factions; its leadership officially comprised seven equals, but in practice was dominated by three Kaetif, who in an ironic twist of fate were the only remaining survivors of Operarius' own Black Project: Isabel, a vixen; Blitz, a porcupine; and Sombra, a wolf. After years of hard work and countless friends lost, the Resistance developed the "Omega Signal", designed to sabotage the robotics network by short-circuiting almost all of Operarius' troops. The development arrived just in time: Operarius had completed a device dubbed the Neuromuscular Interface (Neuralyser); ostensibly designed to aid in restoring damaged motor functions, in reality it would allow physical and potentially mental control of a patient in the same manner as the robots. One week before the Neuralyser was to be deployed en masse, the Resistance launched the Omega Signal, and with several hundred troops supported by throngs of disillusioned civilians, attacked Operarius' palace in the Marian Congo. Distrusting other people on principle, Operarius kept a limited elite guard that was quickly if bloodily overpowered. The Resistance leaders cornered him on the rooftop; both Isabel and Blitz believed he should be tried for crimes against humanity and the state, but before they could act, Sombra launched himself on Operarius and tore him limb from limb in a savagery lasting several minutes that left the Resistance shocked. Etymology Julius Ivo Operarius derives from Julian Ivo Kintobor, alias Ivo Robotnik, the arch-villain in the ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' series. Operarius loosely translates as "worker" in Latin, while Robotnik derives from robot, in turn based on the Czech robota (work, drudgery, serfdom). Operarius bears a physical resemblance to Robotnik and mirrors the latter through his political coup, cybernetic expertise, military background, hatred of non-humans, and his attempt to enslave all of humanity. Footnotes See also * Lucius Infernius * Emmanuel de Zorrito * Sombra de Mar * Black Project Category:Heads of state in IOT4 Category:Roleplay characters in The Aftermath